Play-book.



M. C. ROBINSON.

PLAY BOOK. APPLICATION man MA1/1. 1915.

Patented 0011. 5, 1915.

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PLAY-BOOK.y

Specification of LettersPatentl Application fuedivray 1,1915. serialNo. 25,167.v

To all whom t may concern Be it knownthat L'MARY C. ROBINSON, a citizen of the United States, residing at Asheville, in the county of Buncombe and State of North Carolina, have invented certain new and useful Improvementsin Play- Books; and I do declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact descriptionof the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to the letters and ligures of reference marked thereon, which form a part of this specification.

This invention relates to books and has for its object to provide an improvedconstruction thereof, particularly adapted for plays in dialogue form.

For a more complete understanding of the purposes and advantagesof this invention, it is to be noted that in the printing of play books designed for both professional and amateur dramatic production, it is the universal practice to arrange the book according to the acts and scenes of the play and to supply each player with a separate'copy of the book, so that the actor may memorize his part and familiarize himself with his cues, which usually consist of the last word or words of the speaker immediately preceding, and by such familiarity with his cues, each actor or character is enabled to know precisely his time for his lines. It is therefore only necessary that each player be familiar with his own lines and own cues, and it is of no advantage that he be familiar with or burdened with the lines and cues of other characters. It therefore necessarily happens that with the use of play books in known form, each character must pick out of the total mass of lines only his own lines and cues, the balance of the book being not only of no use to the player, but an actual hindrance, owing to the time required in selecting his lines from the total mass, and the inconvenience of having to continually thumb pages not used by him while memorizing his lines. In order to overcome these objectionable features, to save time, prevent annoyance and inconvenience and at the same time effect an enormous saving in the printing of play books, I have invented a novel construction and arrangement of play book, which consists in printing and providing the complete play by acts and scenes indialogue form, and 1n providingV preferably in the back of the book the lines and cues of'each character in the play, which lines and cues of each character are on sheets or pages separate from the lines and cues of each other character, which sheets or pages areY perforated so as to be readily removable from the book in such manner that when'all of the sheets or pages containing separately the lines andcues of the characters are removed, the play book proper is still intact and available for the instructor,

coacher or` prompter. By this constructionV and arrangement only a single copy of the play book is required for the production of,r

even the longest plays containing many characters, thus effecting a very substantial saving in printing and cost of the books which latter is at times avery material factor particularly in amateur productions.

VFrom the foregoing brief explanation the construction of the book will be apparent when taken in connection `with the following specification and the accompanying drawing.

Figure l is a plan view of a play book in open position constructed in accordance with this invention and illustrating a perforated page containing the lines and cues of a character in a play contained in the book. Fig. 2 is a similarview illustrating Vthe rst page in the book containing a play in dialogue form, and Fig. 3 is a fragmentary longitudinal sectional view taken on line 3-3 of Fig. 1.

Like numerals of reference indicate the same parts throughout the several figures, in which- 1 indicates the play book, which may be said to be divided into two sections 2 and 3, the front section 2-being of usual form and embodies the leaves 4t containing the play by acts and scenes in dialogue form, while the back section 3 embodies the leaves 5 perforated at 6 which contain the lines and cues of each character in the play.

When it is desired to produce a play as contained in the book, the perforated leaves 5 are removed from the back section 3 and distributed to the several players, the front section 2 containing the complete play in dialogue form being retained bythe instructor. In this manner each player received only his individual lines and cues 7 VPaten-tea oet. 5, i915. Y

for his use which of course facilitate the ready memorizing of the same.

In Fig. 2 the lines of two characters are illustrated which will be sufficient for a clear understanding of the use of the book, while in Fig. l lines and cues7 of one of the characters indicated in Fig. 2 are shown. The first speaker' as shown in Fig. 2 is the character Jeff, whose last four words are takin keer of em. These four words of the character Jeff form the cue of the next speaker f Miss Seymour, and by referring to Fig. l it will be seen that these four words takin keer of 7em are marked cue on the perforated leaf 5 containing the lines of thecharacter Miss Seymour, which four words are preferably in red ink to more clearly differentiate the cue from the lines of the character Miss Seymour immediately following on perforated leaf 5.

The next lines of the character Jeif finish with the words tain right, Miss Seymour, you know dat, and consequently the perforated sheet 5 for the character Miss Seymour contain these words as a cue preferably in red ink and are immediately followed by next lines of the character Miss Seymour, this arrangement being carried throughout all of the perforated leaves 5 and for each character in the play.

As will appear from Fig. 2 the cover of the book l may be provided on its inner side witha pocket 7 open at 8 for the convenient reception of the removed pages.

By means of a play book constructed in accordance with this arrangement, a single book will suffice for the production of a play, which heretofore required a separate book for each individual, the use of which is attended with annoyance and inconvenience, aside from the comparatively great cost of the separate copies.

Having thus fully described my invention what claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is- A book of the character described, including a cover and permanently attached leaves, said leaves containing a printed dialogue in which the names of the speakers appear and their lines, and readily detachable leaves within said cover, said readily detachable leaves being printed and containing successively the complete lines of each speaker in the dialogue interspersed with the eues of the speaker, said cues being a portion of the lines of the other speaker or speakers in the dialogue appearing on the permanent leaves, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof, aiiiX my signature, in presence of two witnesses.

MARY C. ROBNSON.

Vitnesses:

H. R. BRADSHAW, H. K. NORTHUP.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for ve cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patent-s. Washington, D. C. 

